Talk:Lightning Talks

From 24C3 Public Wiki

The lightning talks are still not in the schedule. Will they get there, or will it remain a mystery when they will be held till the last minute ?

SvenGuckes: yes, probably. *shrug* who is the ContentTeam, anyway?
(the following was taken from the page as it now is basically "talk".)

H01ger:
I cannot find lightning talks in the fahrplan - can you
please make sure they are there and at a link here? thanks.

[2007-12-23] SvenGuckes:
Julia told me on 2007-12-21
that there will be two Lightning Talks -
one on Day#2 and one on Day#4.
However, there are *no* slots reserved for
the Lightning Talks in the schedule so far. :-(
Right now there are 27 talks on the list.
If all goes well then this needs at least three slots.
Here are four slots which are still available:

[2007-12-24] Henryk: Note that this list of free slots is misleading. There are no actual 'free' slots, just slots that have been internally assigned but not yet marked public. The lightning talks are now scheduled for day 2, 11:30, room 2 and day 4, 17:15, room 3. It may take some time for that to appear in the public schedule.

[2007-12-24] SvenGuckes:
however, the slots which are marked only internally are
misleading because they incorrectly appear to be free.
so - if there are only two slots available for
the lightning talks then this needs to be said!
experience shows that ten talks per hour are possible at most -
and usually you get only eight per hour. so
i figure these two slots will yield about sixteen talks.
but there already 27 on the list now.
this calls for at least another slot.
is there anyone available still?
or have all the free slots
been taken internally already?
more info is appreciated.

also, i think the talks need some moderation.
two years ago there had been no moderation.
which had allowed some people
to take away way too much time.
i was pretty unhappy with this.
so - does someone want to moderate
the talks? any takers?

i have added the two slots to the page now
along with a note on moderators -
see section "status".

Are these going to happen?

[2007-12-26] Are the lightning talks going to materialize? I could theoretically moderate on Day 2 (can't come Day 4), but I can't really moderate and talk at the same time, unless I put myself last, can I? Will there be listeners at all, if it is not on the program? And how do I choose 8 out of 31 if I do proclaim myself moderator? --WiseWoman 17:31, 26 December 2007 (CET)

Sven to the aid

Sven, I suggest that you step in and moderate and as of Fahrplan we really should occupy the night slots. In the last years the center was open all night. Ideally a L-T is for Spontangeistesblitze. This is why I think the speaker advice is wrong. Ideally a speaker should talk as he talks and 5 Min is just for saying, I have a project and please have a look guys; or: I have an idea how to save the planet. L-T are improvised speaking engagements. Foobatz 20:37, 26 December 2007 (CET)

[2007-12-29] SvenGuckes:
I cannot moderate these talks as I am suffering from a severe cold.
it struck me last sunday and i havent left house since.
(i have slept through xmas, too. dont know what happened then, anyway.)
whenever i am struck by coughing hard i have to go back to bed immediately.
so - i will definitely not leave home.
especially not for a session which appeared in the schedule
only the day before the event started. how sad is this, anyway?
(besides, if i had volunteered for moderating the lightning talks
then i would have done so before the deadline of the call for papers.)

as for improvisation:
i still think that most people are far better off
giving their presentation some thought and structure.
five minutes of well planned information can be
far more informative than 20 minutes of improvisation.
but if you think that improvisation yields
the best results - go, improvise!
however, if i think the talk is boring, confusing,
uninformative, shaken by deviation, struck by repetition, or
if time is wasted by hesitation and needless fillers -
then i'm more than happy to see the speaker get kicked
after exactly five minutes. *grin* so there.

speaking of five minutes - the time was cut to four minutes. "hello?"
the time has been five minutes last year, and so it has been announced
for this year as well. it is a given time frame. this one is a *given*.
for all speakers who do put some effort in giving a talk
within that time frame this change is a slap into the face.
i wonder what happened if 23 more people entered a talk -
would the time frame be reduced to three minutes? i hope not!
five minutes is it. you dont change that. period!
if there is no more time for more talks then there is no more for them.
you will simply have to drop the rest of the list. tough luck.
the way to do this properly is to plan ahead.
but planning is something which seems to be avoided here...

night slots:
why not place the lightning talks at the night slots? sure - why not!
for all i know you could also have them *before* all talks - at 7am.
but who will come then? let's not forget that people do need sleep.
personally, i prefer the talks to be part of the normal schedule.
i would place them right after the afternoon slot as a daily session.
and every speaker gets a chance to present his talk on day zero (Dec26th),
so they will get some initial feedback to their talk.
better luck next year...

i watched the talks today (Friday) and i find it kind of sad
that the speakers were not lines up in the front row.
looking for the speakers wasted time.
also, placing all slides on one computers does not help when
the presenter is not familiar with the presentation program
or the system around it. again, this wasted time.
also, announcing people who's name you have not spoken
before in your whole life certainly gives everyone a fuzzy
live feeling probably, on recordings however, it sucks.
why not let the folks speak their name and title themselves?
my point: do not cut down the time of the speakers
to make up for loss of time in between.

microphones:
most people cannot handle a microphone in their hands.
they wave them about with their gestures and
they forget to put it in front of their head
when they move their head around.
so - make them wear a headset!
better yet - get *two* headsets.
one for the current speaker -
and one for the next.
or does the BCC not offer any?

Sven, I was the first Lightning Talker as every year with CongressRadio (and www.Gapminder.org) and we were offer two microphone headsets from the bcc-audio company and the 24C3-audio angel, but because the moderator came too late, the three to four Lightning Talkers already gathered at the stage decided against using the microphone headseats and go in favor for a regular on a "stativ" because we didn't know, how complicated it would be to get the different Lightning Talkers to set up with the two mic headsets. Sorry to have disappointed you. I thought, it went quite good with the mics this year as I was standing near the stage all the event and showing Lightning Talkers to get their mouth closer to the regular microphone. I didn't know, that it was still not good for the other audience further down in the room. --Oliver 11:39, 29 December 2007 (CET)

[2007-12-29 12:27] SvenGuckes: Well, whenever you don't know how well it will work - why not test it before the show starts? Again, some preparation might help. That's why the hour before the talks should be free to test the setup with the speakers. Maybe next year.... right?

Oh, again I have to excuse to you. You've made several good suggestions and this last one is very very good too. I need of somehow to rescue all these suggestions into 2008 and 25C3 - maybe print it out...

The moderator came far to late, even later than 95 percent of the Lightning Talkers. I was there at 11:10 and thought, that would be enough for myself, but completely didn't think of testing mic headset setup testing etc. Hopefully will do better next time and now I am thinking about to organize the Lightning Talks and moderate the sessions by myself - take that as a promise :-). --Oliver 14:53, 29 December 2007 (CET)

summary:
all in all, i am pretty disappointed about the fact that
the lightning talks have been up as one of one main links
in the wiki and only appeared in the schedule just in time
for the opening. this came way too late.
and now there are only slots on two days.
this is not enough. but then you would
have known this already from last year.

next time:
if the congress really has thousands of people
which are all involved in one project or another
then i wonder why room#4 isnt there for an open stage
for lightning talks for all the time.
even with only two slots per day and
eight talks an hour there would be
64 talks possible in those four days. :)

[2007-12-30 23:05] SvenGuckes:
We have been watching today's session
and we were thoroughly annoyed with it.
So we are now looking at various ways of having more
short talks at the congress - but with some quality.
We want speakers who preprare better, but we also
want to give them as much time as possible, too.
We will register the talks for two slots each day.
We will get in talks long before the congress and
we will be offering training on Day#0 as well
having a chain of talks with a *direct*
switch - *no* time wasted in between.
More news later...